Lenovo India outs two All-in-one PCs for small businesses

  Lenovo has announced two new All-in-one (AIO) PCs – ThinkCentre Edge 71z and ThinkCentre Edge 91z for Indian SMBs. Lenovo says small businesses look for space saving designs and performance and their latest offerings suffice both requirements.
Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71z is a mainstream AIO that comes with a 20-inch widescreen display, Intel Core i5 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, energy efficient and more. Edge 71z pricing starts from a modest Rs. 26,400.
ThinkCentre Edge 91z on the other hand, is a power packed machine that features a VESA mount, enabling users to mount it on a wall. Specs include 21.5-inch full HD LED display, up to 1TB HDD or 80GB SSD, 1GB AMD discrete graphics, HDMI-out and more. It will sell from Rs. 43,500.

What's next for Spotify? Apps, apparently

We may have to wait until noon ET today to get the official word on "what's next" from Spotify, but The Wall Street Journal has kindly given us an early peak into what we can expect a few hours from now -- namely, apps. The Swedish music streaming service is apparently getting ready to go all Facebook on us, offering up apps galore. When it launches today, the service's "app finder" will include magazine reviews, concert listings, lyrics and the like, so you'll never have to guess at what Tom Waits is saying again.

Aakash makers announce contest for app developers

Datawind, the makers of what's being touted as the world's most affordable tablet, yet - Aakash and that of Ubislate, the commercial version of Aakash, have announced a contest for enthusiastic students across the country. A report in Times of India confirms that the contest, will see students from across the country build apps, which if found impressive will find their way to the commercial version of Aakash - Ubislate, which is scheduled for a launch, next year.

Commercial version to be a money spinner!

The report quotes Suneet Singh Tuli, Chief Executive of Datawind, as saying that students, who's apps will be selected to feature on Ubislate will earn royalties off the usage of the app, thus making this contest a money spinner for them, in addition to being encouraging. In addition to this, the report also reveals that 5 best entries to this contest will receive a lakh rupees. The report further suggests that Ubislate makers have also finalized a deal with Nasscom, as a part of which they will distribute as many as 200 tablets across several NGOs in the country. 

Interestingly, Nasscom have on their part, too announced a contest, wherein 10 NGOs across the country will have a chance of winning 20 tablets, each. This new age computing device, the report states will aid the NGOs in improving their operations and programme implementation.

Exploring Apps Store: Apps for the Samsung Galaxy Note

The Samsung Galaxy Note is here to fill the gap between a smartphone and a tablet. This mini-tablet, if we may say so, has a set of new apps for its users. Taking advantage of its attributes like the S pen input, Samsung has dished out some interesting apps for the device. Clearly the device is going to warrant apps that cater to both the business class and  normal users.

Let’s explore them one by one:

Work Apps
iAnnotate PDF
Dealing with PDF files on a mobile device is often considered tedious. iAnnotate PDF is a tool crafted for reading and annotating PDF files on the Note itself. It aims at reducing clutter and accelerating productivity. With PDFs becoming quite cmmon forms of attachemnets for documnents etc. this app, coupled with the Note's large dislay will make working on the go a little lighter.

For the corporate

Soonr Scribble
Cloud based apps are becoming more and more popular as online storge has taken on a whole new level of usbality. Soonr is a cloud service for businesses that allow sharing, accessing, searching, editing and syncing files. The Soonr Scribble app transforms the Note into a productivity tool that helps annotating any file and restoring it to the cloud.

Smart Pen Apps
Touchnote Postcards
Postcards maybe passé, but creating one digitally can be fun. This is a simple and fun app that prints and sends any digital photo as a real post card. And who wouldn't like to make sure that they're memories aren't shared with friends and family whenever possible right?

Making digital postcards

Comic Book
This full featured comic book creation app is capable of turning you into your favorite hero or villian if that's the direction you wish to go. With a sketchy type feel and comic book stule layout with windows and bubbles for dialogues, the app allows you to customise your images and transform your "adventures" into, well, adventures.

Turns you into a hero

Omni Sketch
As the name suggests, you can create pictures with this app. Designs and patterns are automatically drawn with procedurals brushes. The brushes in this app use mathemati cal algorithms to draw patterns. These patterns interact with previously drawn lines for detailed effects. It is said to be ideal for the precision of the S Pen.

Creating pictures

Zen brush
Using a real ink brush doesn’t seem a far fetched thought with this app. It allows sketching and writing with an ink brush, allowing you to relive those childhood memories and create masterpieces all of your own. This app promises that you dont compromise on the texture of a real ink while sketching those perfect strokes.

The ink feel

Clearly catering to the corporate sector and adding fun quotient with the multi-touch input ability, do you think these apps would keep users glued to the screen?

Autonomy CEO talks about HP's future, promises 'really stunning technology'

New details are emerging today about HP's plans for Autonomy, nearly two months after Whitman & Co. purchased the software-maker for a cool $10.4 billion. In an interview with ZDNet UK, Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch said his company's search, data analysis and AR technologies will be integrated within a range of HP products, including its printers, servers and storage unit, and its consumer-focused Personal Systems Group, which handles phones, tablets and PCs. "There is a lot of work going on between the different business units at HP," Lynch explained. "Servers and storage is obviously key [but with the] Personal Systems Group stuff is going to come that was only available for very large companies." He went on to say that Autonomy's data analysis artillery will be linked up to HP's public cloud service, and that both companies have developed some "really stunning technology" for printers. The exec didn't offer many details beyond that, but he did promise that more information would be released "very shortly."

Test the new WP7 experience on your smartphone

Interested in trying out the Windows Phone OS, but not too sure if it matches your liking? Well, Microsoft’s new demo will help you view a few of the offerings of their Windows Phone user interface, right from your Android or Safari browser. 

Other than the Android notification icons, it's a pretty convincing effect

As reported by WMPowerUser, what Microsoft has done is that they’ve created a small demo site, which you can view from your mobile phone’s browser to briefly see how the metro interface of the phone looks and feels on your mobile screen. It’s definitely an interesting way to promote Windows Phone Mango, because this way you can have a nice hands-on of the interface without actually buying the phone, and check to see if it’s something you’ll like.

Won't work if you have a BB, though

The interface works quite well on the stock iOS and Android browsers, currently, but unfortunately, it didn’t work on our BlackBerry phone. We’ve got a brief hands-on of it on the Apple iPhone 4 and the Sony Ericsson Neo V in the Tech2 labs.

Acer, Lenovo tablets to feature Tegra 3 and ICS, coming early next year

While the future of tablets by PC manufacturers has been speculated to be uncertain, news has it that Acer and Lenovo could bring in new tablets with the latest technologies. According to a report by Digitimes, sources reveal that Acer and Lenovo are prepping quad-core tablet PCs, which equip Nvidia’s Tegra 3 and Google’s new flavour of Android - Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ve seen the Asus Transformer Prime equip the Nvidia Tegra 3.

Tablets slated for 2012

Further, the sources suggest that the quad-core tablet market would be competitive as these devices will only come with a few improvements over performance and design. So, it would not be very easy for them to compete with giants like Apple and Amazon. Reportedly, the new tablets to emerge from Acer and Lenovo are expected to be priced somewhere between $459 (approx Rs.23,938) and $599 (approx Rs.31,239) and would hit markets early next year.

Mobile tracking software logs every phone activity, threat to personal data

It’s not just Facebook who has been accused of accessing private user information. Trevor Eckhart, an Android developer had recently become the talk of the techville when he shed light on a certain security software from a company called Carrier iQ that is capable of recording users’ phone activity. Basically, it is mobile tracking software used for quality checks. This software, which has been stealthily pre-loaded on millions of handsets gets further scrutinized by Trevor. He now discloses a 17 minute video displaying that Carrier iQ software can report everything that a user does. It can keep a track of the user's SMSes, key presses, GPS and so on.

Secretly tracks mobile activities

The video shows logging of texts messages, encrypted web searches and much more. The 25-year old developer had irked the software maker by shedding light on their secret mobile tracking tool. He was even threatened to face legal action. Reportedly, the company backed off later and revealed that Carrier IQ’s software only helps with “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”

The video shows that the software is logging Eckhart’s online search results, inspite of using the HTTPS version of Google to hide searches from spying elements. “Every button you press in the dialer before you call, it already gets sent off to the IQ application,” reveals the video. The content is secretly sent to Carrier IQ’s servers.

This pre-installed software can be turned off only by rooting the phone and replacing the operating system. Moreover, phone activities are reported to Carrier IQ, even after you stop the wireless service and use only Wi-Fi.

Mobile devices have almost become a hub of corporate and personal data. Such stealthy intrusion could have worse implications. Companies should not be allowed to employ such tracking tools without the consent of the phone owner. What are your views? Do let us know.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 Shows Up In Leaked Promo Video

Just in time for the holidays, a newly leaked Acer video is making the rounds around the net showing off the upcoming 10-inch Iconia Tab A200. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen their new Android tablet with the device making its way past the FCC and receiving Bluetooth certification a few weeks ago. The A200, looks to be little more than a refresh of the A500 with largely the same specs on the inside — Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM — meaning you might want to look elsewhere for a powerhouse tablet. Don’t get us wrong, that’s not bad at all. If they can drop the price to around the sub $300 range and make a solid product, I think it will do well for those that don’t feel the need to drop $500 on a quad-core tab from those other guys.
The (almost creepy) promo video shows off some of the features of the A200 giving us a clear look at the device’s form factor and some of its features like a full sized USB port. I have to say, I like the direction Acer is going with their tablet line. Connectivity and wide array of ports should be the norm and not the exception when talking about an Android tablet. No word yet on a release but judging from the video, we should see retailers stocking the tablet in time for the holidays. Enjoy.

Samsung's Bada 2.0-based Wave 3 arriving in India next month

Samsung's latest Bada-based smartphone, Wave 3 a.k.a S8600, is reportedly arriving in India in December. The new Samsung smartphone was unveiled along with two other Bada-based phones, Wave Y and Wave M in August earlier this year. Samsung yesterday announced the roll-out of the Wave 3 to countries such as France, Germany and Italy.

The new Samsung smartphone runs on Bada 2.0 operating system and features a 4-inch WVGA super AMOLED screen with 480x800 pixel resolution. The Wave 3 also runs a 1.4GHz processor and has a 5MP rear camera with autofocus and a LED flash along with a VGA resolution front camera. The Samsung Wave 3 comes with various new capabilities which were absent in the previous version, such as multi-tasking, Wi-Fi, and voice recognition software. The device also comes with Samsung’s Social, Music Hub interfaces and newly announced ChatOn feature. For more details of the Samsung Wave 3, refer to our previous coverage.

 

Samsung has already started the roll-out of the Wave 3 internationally. It is scheduled to arrive first in France followed by Germany, Italy and Russia. The Samsung Wave 3 is reportedly arriving in India by December at an expected price of Rs. 19,600. Meanwhile, check out a video hands on with the new Wave 3.

Motorola announces Dinara XT928; features 4.5-inch HD display and 13MP camera

Motorola seems to be on a launching spree. After releasing RAZR XT910 and XT615, Motorola has now launched another Android-based smartphone, Dinara XT928. Running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, the Dinara XT928 is dubbed as Motorola's first 720p HD native resolution display-based smartphone. Presently, the phone has been announced exclusively for China. However, it's being speculated that the Dinara XT928 will soon arrive in other regions.

The Motorola Dinara XT928 comes with a 4.5-inch touchscreen display with 1280x720 pixel resolution made up of Corning Gorilla Glass. It also features Dolby Digital Plus audio technology, giving a better multimedia experience. The Motorola XT928 is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz mobile processor and has a 1GB of RAM. However, the most notable feature of the XT928 is its 13MP rear-facing camera with 1080p high-definition video capture capabilities. It also has a 1.3MP front-facing camera. Flaunting its new smartphone, Motorola says, “This is no camera phone; it’s a camera inside of a phone.”

“With Smart Actions, the Motorola XT928 tracks your actions to predict what you’ll do next and even monitors its own performance to ensure that your battery lasts as long as you do. It also supports Motorola’s unique webtop application, which works with a range of docks to enable you to use an external monitor, full-screen web browser, smartphone apps and USB peripherals all at the same time,” adds Motorola.

The new Motorola XT928 is being pitted against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and LG's Nitro. The XT928 scheduled to arrive in China in December. Given the track record of Motorola, we can expected the XT928 to hit the Indian shores early next year.

Samsung Announces Dual Core Exynos 5250 2GHz Processor

Samsung has announced their latest Exynos processor, the Exynos 5250, which is Samsung’s first dual core processor clocked at 2GHz, and the chip is based on ARM’s Cortex A15 architecture, which is reported to be 40 percent faster than the current Cortex A9.
The Samsung Exynos 5250 will support stereoscopic 3D displays and also displays with a WQXGA resolution which is 2560 x 1600 pixels, so we can expect to see this new processor in some tablets from Samsung.

Samsung has said that they will put the Exynos 5250 into production in quarter two of 2012, so we can expect to see new devices powered by this 2GHz dual core processor some time next year.

Samsung Unveils New Dual-Core 2GHz Exynos 5250 Processor

Samsung recently unveiled the Exynos 4212 processor and we've heard rumors about the possibly upcoming Exynos 4412 quad-core SoC. Until going quad-core, Samsung has unveiled its brand new dual-core processor, the Exynos 5250, which is based on Cortex-A15.

The two chips are clocking at a whopping frequency of 2GHz and are built on the new 32nm technology. It is advertised to deliver up to double the speed of Samsung's Cortex A9 processors and up to four times better gaming performance. The graphics part not only supports high resolutions of up to WQXGA (1600 x 2560) but also 3D stereoscopic screens. Even though Samsung is currently targeting the chip for tablets -- with production starting in the second quarter of next year -- chances could always be there of seeing this chip (or one based on it) powering future smartphones.